A deceased Ohio man who was convicted of serial rapism has been identified as a suspect in the murders of two women in Shenandoah National Park nearly 30 years ago, a case that has baffled investigators.
The FBI announced Thursday that recently retested DNA evidence has linked Walter Leo Jackson Sr., of Cleveland, Ohio, to the murders of 24-year-old Julian “Julie” Williams and 26-year-old Laura “Lorrie” Winans.
“After 28 years, we can now identify who committed the brutal murders of Lori Winans and Julie Williams in Shenandoah National Park,” said U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh.
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Julie Williams and Rory Winans are pictured here 28 years ago, before they were murdered while camping in Shenandoah National Park. (FBI)
The two women, who were a married couple, were killed at a campsite near Skyland Resort in Virginia on May 24, 1996. When the women failed to return home, their family called the National Park Service.
The couple began hiking in Shenandoah National Park on May 19. They were scheduled to return to their summer jobs in Vermont on May 28, but media reports at the time said they never heard from them again.
Their bodies were discovered during a search by park rangers on June 1, 1996. They had been bound and their throats had been slit.
“Their murders have sent shock and horror throughout the region and the nation,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meader. “It is now clear who is responsible for this heinous crime.”
Jackson died in a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, jail in March 2018. According to the FBI, Jackson’s criminal history included kidnapping, rape and assault. Judge Kavanaugh said Jackson was forensically linked to two rapes that took place in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in June and July 1996, just weeks after the murders of Winans and Williams.
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An image is displayed during a press conference regarding the 1996 murders of Laura “Lorrie” Winans and Julian “Julie” Williams at a campground in Shenandoah National Park, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Richmond, Virginia. (Associated Press/Steve Helber) (FBI)
Jackson was a painter by trade and an “avid” hiker known for visiting Shenandoah National Park.
Another man, Darrell D. Rice, was charged with murder in 2004, but the charges were dropped shortly before trial after DNA testing didn’t link him to the crime. The Virginia FBI re-examined the case in 2021, Meader said.
With funding from the Justice Department’s Sexual Assault Kit Program, investigators combed through every case file, re-examining evidence, photographs and interviews. Given advances in DNA technology, the team “spent countless hours” determining what evidence could be re-tested, Meader said.
According to the FBI, a lab extracted DNA from the evidence and submitted the results to the Federal DNA Index System, which found a match to Jackson’s DNA stored in Cuyahoga County. Investigators also directly compared the murder evidence to a buccal swab that contained Jackson’s DNA.
The suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer allegedly has more victims and locations to search than police originally thought.
Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meader of the FBI’s Richmond field office gestures during a press conference regarding the 1996 murders of Laura “Lorrie” Winans and Julian “Julie” Williams at a campground in Shenandoah National Park in Richmond, Virginia, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (Photo by The Associated Press/Steve Helber) (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
“This finding confirms the identity of the perpetrator and allows us to finally tell the victim’s family that they know who is responsible for this heinous crime,” Meader said.
“The odds of it being anyone other than Walter Leo Jackson are 2.6 trillion to one,” Kavanaugh said. “I’ve prosecuted a lot of murders and cold cases, and I’ve never seen a statistic this high.”
Federal investigators said Jackson was likely driving a 1984 Chestnut Brown AMC Eagle 30 at the time of the murders, but he was known to use temporary license plates, altered license plates and frequently changed car models.
An image is displayed during a press conference regarding the 1996 murders of Laura “Lorrie” Winans and Julian “Julie” Williams at a campground in Shenandoah National Park, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Richmond, Virginia. (Associated Press/Steve Helber) (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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The FBI is investigating whether Jackson may have been involved in other unsolved crimes.
